Management Accounting Information for Decision-Making and Strategy Execution Atkinson 6th Edition Solutions Manual

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– 1 –
Management Accounting Information for
Decision-Making and Strategy Execution
Atkinson 6th Edition Solutions Manual
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solutions-manual/
Chapter 1
How Management
Accounting
Information Supports
Decision Making
QUESTIONS
1-1 Management accounting is a discipline that designs planning and performance
measurement systems, using financial and nonfinancial information, to help an
organization develop and implement its strategy. The information must be
relevant and helpful, and customized to serve multiple purposes, such as making
decisions, allocating resources, and monitoring, evaluating, and rewarding
performance. Information for the “plan” and “do” steps of the PDCA cycle
includes prospective data on costs, profits, efficiency, and quality associated with
alternative ways to produce or provide goods or services. Information for the
“check” and “act” steps includes assessments of how well the organization is
achieving its objectives. Common information requirements include measures of
cost, quality, profitability, and timeliness.
1-2 A company’s operators, managers, and executives need information for their
operational control and improvement activities, as well as on the performance of
their individual processes, products, services, and customers. This information is
important to direct managers’ attention to areas where improvement is needed, to
provide feedback on activities, and to monitor and evaluate the performance of
operators, departments, divisions, and business units and their managers. This
information should be created and produced based on the internal need for
operational and strategic information.

Atkinson, Solutions Manual t/a Management Accounting, 6E
– 2 –
Shareholders and external suppliers of capital are not involved in managing the
business or establishing and validating the company’s strategy. Therefore, they
do not need the timely and disaggregate information generated for internal
managerial uses. External capital suppliers will receive less timely (typically
quarterly for shareholders, monthly for creditors) and more aggregate
information. Also the form and accounting procedures used to prepare these
external reports are constrained by regulation—such as by the country’s standard
setting authorities and governmental regulatory agencies. This information may
also have to be audited by independent accountants, whereas the data for internal
uses do not have to be subjected to external auditing review.
Another constraint on information supplied externally is the risk of competitors
seeing and acting upon a company’s disclosed information. Therefore, while
internal information should be highly relevant about the success of the company’s
strategy, such information disclosed externally could harm the company.
1-3 Operators need direct measures on variables they can influence and control.
These generally are physical measures of outputs produced and input resources
used to produce the outputs (including productivity measures such as percentage
of good units produced). In addition, operators should be seeing measures of the
quality of their output (defects, scrap, and rework) and the time required to
produce the output. In this way, they can become problem solvers and attempt to
improve quality, productivity, and cycle times of their tasks and activities.
Financial measures are a summary of the effectiveness and efficiency (or lack
thereof) of operators’ actions, but by themselves do not direct attention to the
drivers of improved financial performance or the root causes of poor financial
performance. Operators need leading measures of performance, and financial
measures tend to be lagging measures of performance.
Middle managers, while generally seeing more financial information than
operators, will also need to see summary measures about outputs produced (first-
pass yields, productivity), quality (scrap, rework, defect rates) and cycle times if
they are going to motivate employees for continuous improvement of yields,
quality and production process times. The middle managers will also want to see
operating summaries of the performance of their operations from their customers’
perspectives (including internal customers), such as measures of on-time
delivery, quoted and actual lead times for delivery, returns due to defects or
dissatisfaction, and customer satisfaction. They may also want periodic
summaries about their employees’ attitude, skills, number of suggestions made,
absenteeism, turnover, etc.

Chapter 1: How Management Accounting: Information Supports Decision Making
– 3 –
Even senior executives can benefit from seeing nonfinancial measures. Measures
such as market share, customer satisfaction, retention and acquisition of
customers, on-time delivery performance, employee morale, and summaries of
the quality, yield, productivity, safety, and timeliness of key business processes
can provide valuable information to senior executives about the success of their
strategic initiatives and the efficiency of internal operations.
1-4 Financial measures are inadequate for guiding and evaluating organizations’
trajectories through today’s competitive environments. Financial measures are
lagging indicators that could fail to capture much of the value that has been
created or destroyed by managers’ actions in the most recent accounting period.
The financial measures tell some, but not all, of the story about past actions and
they fail to provide adequate guidance for the actions that have created or
destroyed future financial value.
The information-age environment for both manufacturing and service
organizations requires new capabilities for competitive success. The ability of a
company to mobilize and exploit its intangible or invisible assets has become far
more decisive than investing and managing physical, tangible assets. Intangible
assets enable an organization to:
• develop customer relationships that retain the loyalty of existing customers
and enable new customer segments and market areas to be served
effectively and efficiently;
• introduce innovative products and services desired by targeted customer
segments;
• produce customized high-quality products and services at low cost and
with short lead times;
• mobilize employee skills and motivation for continuous improvements in
process capabilities, product and service quality, and response times; and
• deploy information technology, data bases, and systems
Managers who are placed under pressure to deliver consistent and excellent short-
term financial performance may make trade-offs that limit the search for
investments in these growth opportunities. Even worse, the pressure for short-
term financial performance can cause companies to reduce spending on new
product development, process improvements, human resource development,
information technology, databases and systems, and customer and market
development. In the short run, the financial accounting model reports these
spending cutbacks as increases in reported income, even when the reductions
have cannibalized the company’s stock of assets and its capabilities for creating

– 4 –
future economic value. Alternatively, the company could maximize short-term
financial results by exploiting customers through high prices or lower service. In
the short-run, these actions enhance reported profitability, but the lack of
customer loyalty and customer satisfaction will leave the company highly
vulnerable to competitive inroads.
1-5 Innovations in management accounting practice have been driven by the
information needs of new strategies as companies became more complex,
introduced new technologies, and encountered new competitors.
• When controlling and reducing costs were important, innovations in costing
systems occurred. For example, by the middle of the 19th century, railroad
managers had developed complex costing systems to compute the costs of
carrying different types of freight along multiple routes. Later in the century,
Andrew Carnegie developed detailed systems to track the cost of materials
and labor in his steel mills. Carnegie used this information to determine
where he could reduce costs and which mills to close. Based on his ability to
control and reduce costs, Carnegie was able to lower prices to obtain a
competitive advantage.
• When organizations gained advantage from scale and diversification,
innovative executives developed new management control systems to
monitor and manage their complex enterprises. For example, in the early
20th century, DuPont and General Motors expanded the focus of
management accounting to management planning and control in order to
determine resource allocations and assess performance of multiple lines of
business. Assessment measures included return on investment and various
disaggregations of return on investment.
• When competitive advantage shifted to how well a company deployed and
managed its intangible assets—customer relationships, process quality,
innovation, and, especially, employees—new systems for cost and
performance management emerged. For example, in the 1970s, American
and European companies faced intense competition from Japanese
manufacturers. Management accounting systems advanced to add such
nonfinancial measures as quality, service, innovation, drivers of customer
satisfaction, and employee performance.
Furthermore, many companies formerly produced a fairly narrow product
line. The companies produced standard products in high volumes so that
product distortions did not arise from variation in batch sizes, customization,
and special features. Today, most companies produce a much greater variety

– 5 –
of products and services, and sell and distribute these to more customers and
markets. As a result, they need better cost systems to accurately assign
indirect and support costs required to design and produce a product, deliver a
service, and meet individual customers’ demands.
• Though not covered in the chapter, commentary on service organizations is
provided here: For many service organizations, the regulated environment did
not require accurate knowledge of the cost of individual services or customer
segments. Therefore these companies’ cost systems focused on cost control
and responsibility accounting, and had only very crude estimates of cost and
profitability by service, line of business, or market segment. In a much more
competitive, deregulated environment, service companies now have to know
the cost of their outputs and customers, and to understand the underlying cost
drivers of their business. In addition to better cost and profit information,
service companies have to concentrate on customer service and satisfaction,
so they now need information on the quality and timeliness of their services
to customers. Measures such as customer loyalty and repeat purchase
frequency become critical.
• Finally, organizations today derive competitive advantage from their
intangible assets: innovative products and services, high quality and
responsive processes, skilled and motivated employees, excellent technology
and information systems, and reputation and image among targeted customer
groups. None of these “assets” is well measured by traditional accounting
systems. Consequently, management accounting systems in such
organizations have advanced to include measures to help coordinate value
creation from the organization’s intangible assets.
1-6 Given a selected strategy, the organization needs management accounting
information to help implement the strategy, allocate resources for the strategy,
communicate the strategy, and link employees and operational processes to
achieve the strategy. As the strategy gets executed, management accounting
information provides feedback about where it is working and where it is not, and
guides actions to improve the performance from the strategy.
1-7 The plan step of the PDCA cycle defines the organization’s purpose, selects the
focus and scope of its strategy, and determines actions to achieve the
organization’s objectives.
The do step involves implementing a chosen course of action.

– 6 –
The check step includes two components: measuring and monitoring ongoing
performance and taking short-term actions based on the measured performance.
In the act step, managers take actions to lower costs, change resource
allocations, improve the quality, cycle time, and flexibility of processes, modify
the product mix, change customer relationships, and redesign and introduce
new products. They reward (and occasionally punish) employees based on
performance. As these new actions get implemented, the management team will
eventually return to the planning step to assess whether its previous plan is still
valid and worth continuing, or whether it has become time to adapt the plan or
perhaps introduce a new strategic plan. This launches the enterprise on another
trip around its PDCA cycle.
1-8 Individuals react to measurements. They focus on the variables and behavior
being measured and spend less attention on those not measured. In designing
feedback mechanisms, measurements and goals, management accountants and
the management team must understand and anticipate the reactions of individuals
to feedback information, measurements, and goals. When the measurements are
not only used for information, planning, and decision-making but also for control,
evaluation, and reward, employees and managers may take unexpected and
undesirable actions to influence their score on the performance measure.
As management accounting systems change in order to introduce or redesign cost
and performance measurement systems, people familiar with the previous
systems may resist. People who have acquired expertise in the old system may
fear that their experience and expertise will not be transferable to the new system.
People may also have concerns that decisions and actions based on information
the old system produced, may no longer seem valid given information produced
by a new management accounting system. Thus, people may feel threatened by a
new management accounting system and react against the change.
EXERCISES
1-9 These questions are designed to generate discussion about the broad scope of
contemporary management accounting information, cross-functional interaction
in designing management accounting information systems, and the range of
needed skills and knowledge in today’s business environment.
“Accounting” conveys a notion of recording and reporting for stewardship, or
accountability for use of assets or incurrence of expenses. Accurate, timely, and
relevant information about the economics and performance of organizations is
crucial to organizational success or good stewardship over entrusted assets.

– 7 –
Management accounting information is one of the primary informational sources
for decision making, improvement, and control in organizations. Effective
management accounting systems can create considerable value to organizations
by providing timely and accurate information about the activities required for
their success. Traditionally, management accounting information that helped
support decision making and efficient use of resources was primarily financial.
In recent times, management accounting information has expanded to encompass
operational or physical (nonfinancial) information, such as quality and process
times, as well as more subjective measurements, such as customer satisfaction,
employee capabilities, and new product performance.
To develop effective management accounting information systems, the system
designers must understand the different decision and feedback information needs
of the organization’s operators/employees, middle managers, and senior
executives. The different needs include operational control, product and customer
costing, management control, and strategy implementation and control. In
addition to technical financial skills and ability to communicate well with people
in other functional areas, a person handling the described responsibilities needs
an understanding of the organization’s operations and processes, the
organization’s strategy and competitive environment (including customers and
noncustomers), and the behavioral implications of performance measurements.
In response to the challenging and continually changing environment facing
organizations all over the world, management accounting systems must continue
to undergo changes to enhance organizational performance. Thus, the
management accountant, for example, as part of the management team, needs
adaptability and the ability to manage both the technical and behavioral aspects
of change.
1-10 The plan step of the PDCA cycle defines the organization’s purpose and selects
the focus and scope of its strategy. Many organizations start the planning stage
by reaffirming or updating their mission statement. The enterprise’s planners then
accumulate information about the organization’s external environment (political,
economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal), its industry situation,
and its internal strengths and weaknesses, relative to competitors. Executives use
this information to decide on a course of action to achieve the organization’s
objectives.
Critical management accounting information in the plan step includes cost,
revenue, and profit projections. This information relies on an accurate
understanding of how costs change as various plans are implemented. The
financial consequences of a strategy are often translated into a budget.

– 8 –
Organizations also need to plan for the development of entirely new products
and services. Management accounting information is used in conjunction with
designing new products, monitoring the efficiency of the product development
process, and assessing the total life-cycle cost consequences from using and
disposing of products. End-of-cycle salvage and reclamation costs can be
enormous, and information about these future costs for any project are now
considered part of any new product development process.
The do step involves implementing a chosen course of action. In this step,
management accounting financial and nonfinancial information helps
employees to make decisions; operate and improve processes; market, sell, and
deliver products and services to customers; and respond to customer requests.
The check step includes two components: measuring and monitoring ongoing
performance and taking short-term actions based on the measured performance.
Management accounting information in this step includes costs of products and
product lines, costs of serving customers, customer profitability, and business
unit financial and nonfinancial performance. Nonfinancial information reports
on the critical drivers of long-term financial performance: customers, processes,
innovation, employees, systems, and culture. The particular nonfinancial
measures most useful for an organization will vary based on its industry and
strategy, but generally will include measures of customer loyalty, process
quality, and employee capabilities and motivation.
In the act step, managers use management accounting information acquired in
some or all of the previous steps to take actions to lower costs, change resource
allocations, improve the quality, cycle time, and flexibility of processes, modify
the product mix, change customer relationships, and redesign and introduce
new products. They reward (and occasionally punish) employees based on
management accounting performance information. As these new actions get
implemented, the management team will eventually return to the planning step
to assess whether its previous plan is still valid and worth continuing, or
whether it has become time to adapt the plan or perhaps introduce a new
strategic plan. This launches the enterprise on another trip around its PDCA
cycle.
1-11 Obviously, there is no single “correct” answer to this question, but the instructor
should be able to generate an interesting discussion with the class to brainstorm
on the financial and nonfinancial measures used by managers at the different
levels of a fast food organization. The answers below are meant to be suggestive
but are certainly not definitive, complete, or comprehensive. The goal should be
to engage the students in recognizing the different types of information—

– 9 –
financial and non-financial, daily and monthly, disaggregate and aggregate—that
managers at different levels of the organization will find helpful in performing
their jobs.
(a) The manager of the local fast food outlet will want information on the
quality of the food being served, the length of time customers typically
must wait before being served, materials and food scrapped, number of
customers served per hour, average revenue per customer served, stockouts
of ingredients, errors in serving customers, employee absenteeism and
tardiness, and daily revenues and operating expenses. Most of these
measures should be available daily to detect quickly any deterioration in
performance.
(b) The regional manager will want to see operating summaries, perhaps
weekly, of all the outlets in his or her region. These summaries will include
number of customers served, average revenue per customer and mix of
products ordered. The manager will also be interested in weekly reports on
the profitability of each store—revenues less operating expenses and the
standard cost of materials sold. The regional manager will probably have
inspectors visiting the outlets monthly to report on the cleanliness, quality
of food served, and response time of service. Periodically, surveys will be
distributed randomly to customers asking for their opinion on the food and
service.
(c) The Vice President of Operations will want summary statistics, probably
monthly, on the productivity and efficiency of the retail outlets. These
statistics could include revenues per employee, an operating expense ratio
(the ratio of operating expenses to revenues), and summary reports of
quality, cleanliness, and customer response times.
The Vice President of Marketing will want monthly summaries of all
customer surveys, the number of customers visiting each establishment,
the mix of products being ordered, and the average revenue per customer
transaction. If available, statistics on market share in the relevant industry
segment would be desirable.
The President will likely want much of the information being received by
the Vice Presidents of Operations and Marketing. In addition, he or she
may want weekly summaries of financial performance. Monthly or
quarterly the President will wish to see financial measures, such as total
profitability and return on investment, with, perhaps, the ability to measure
profitability and ROI on a regional or even local basis.

– 10 –
1-12 As in the previous question, there is no single “correct” answer. The instructor
should try to generate an interesting discussion with the class to brainstorm on
the measures used, both financial and non-financial, by the different managers in
the hospital. The answers below are meant to be suggestive but are certainly not
definitive, complete, or comprehensive. The goal should be to engage the
students in recognizing the different types of information—financial and non-
financial, daily and monthly, disaggregate and aggregate—that managers at
different levels of the hospital will find helpful in performing their jobs.
(a) (1) The manager of a patient unit will want to track the number of
patients each day in the unit, and their predicted demands for meals,
housekeeping, medication, and other nursing services that day,
based on their treatments required, and whether they need to be fed
or assisted in basic toilet functions. In this way, the manager can
adjust the supply of nurses and other personnel, and the mix of skills
required in these personnel, to anticipated patient demands. The
manager may want indicators of quality problems—incorrect
medications provided, inappropriate meals delivered, and excessive
delays in responding to patients’ needs and requests—so that the
root causes of these problems can be identified and efforts made to
eliminate these causes. Most of this information will be provided
daily, and will be non-financial. Perhaps a daily report of total
personnel expenses used each day would be helpful to signal the
importance of continually adjusting the mix of personnel required to
the expected demand. For example, it would be inefficient to have
highly-paid registered nurses changing sheets, a task that could be
done equally well by much lower paid orderlies. But low paid or
inexperienced personnel should not be performing patient-care
functions that require the skill levels of experienced registered
nurses.
(2) On a weekly basis, the manager of the radiology department would
monitor the consumption of supplies—such as X-ray films—and the
utilization of expensive equipment, such as CAT scanners and
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machines. The manager would
also monitor the staffing of the department to ensure that radiology
technicians and other skilled personnel were available to perform
scheduled procedures, as well as emergency (unexpected)
procedures. The manager should monitor any excess supply of
personnel. Quality measures would include the number and
percentage of procedures that had to be redone, stockouts of critical

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– 11 –
supplies, and the quality of images created (perhaps the manager
could measure the complaints of the radiologists who had to
examine and interpret the images). Process times—time required to
perform each procedure—would be tracked, and delay time—the
time between when the patient showed up for a procedure and the
time when the procedure was actually initiated would provide an
indicator of customer service. Weekly (or monthly) the manager
would want financial summaries of the cost of supplies used and of
the department’s personnel expenses, normalized by the quantity
and mix of services provided. Supplies and personnel expenses
would be among the principal controllable items by the department
manager. Weekly summaries of rework and delays would also be
useful indicators of trends in departmental operating performance.
Depending on the job description, the manager may be responsible
for process times of staff conducting radiological examinations,
CAT scans, or MRI procedures.
(b) The manager of the nursing service would likely get daily summaries of
the staffing at each of the patient units, and the number of patients in each
unit. She might question any department that appears overstaffed or
understaffed, allowing the departmental manager (see answer to (a)(1)
above) to explain deviations by the mix of specific patient demands in that
unit that day. Weekly and monthly summaries of number, mix, and total
cost of personnel by each nursing unit, again normalized by patient-days
(or, better, a measure of weighted patient demands for nursing service)
would provide a summary indication of the ability of each unit manager to
adjust staffing levels to actual demands. Weekly and monthly summaries
of absenteeism or tardiness in each patient unit may help identify where
employee morale and commitment to the hospital are above and below
normal levels. Weekly and monthly summaries of supplies used at each
patient unit will provide control as to whether the departmental managers
are monitoring the consumption of these supplies at their units.
The manager might establish a procedure in which discharged patients are
asked to evaluate the quality of the service they received during their stay.
This would enable the manager to compare the quality of the service
provided (as perceived by the customer—in this case the patient) by each
of the units under her control. A similar survey might be done with the
house staff and attending physicians to get their perception about the
quality of the professional service being delivered by patient unit
personnel. Monthly summaries of these customer surveys could indicate
where improvement might be needed and where a departmental manager

– 12 –
has succeeded in creating highly satisfied patients and physicians. The
practices being used by this manager can then be disseminated to the other
departmental managers.
The manager will also want a weekly and monthly report on the staffing
levels at the specialty units, normalized by the number of procedures or the
number of patient hours delivered in each unit. Physical counts (number of
procedures or patient hours per employee) will provide a measure of
whether these units are over-staffed or under-staffed, and personnel cost
per procedure or per patient hour will provide an indicator of whether the
skill mix of personnel is being appropriately adjusted. A similar report on
supplies used at each unit will supply information about consumption of
expensive materials and supplies.
(c) The chief executive officer of the hospital will want to see aggregate
operating statistics such as occupancy rates, personnel expenses per patient
day, number of full-time-equivalent personnel per patient day, and trends
in admissions and length-of-stay. Financial measures will be important—
operating revenues and expenses, accounts receivable (or average
collection period), and utilization of expensive resources—such as
specialized equipment and intensive care units. Financial data are probably
useful on a monthly basis, but key operating statistics like occupancy rates,
admissions backlogs, and average length-of-stay could be provided daily.
Monthly, the CEO could attempt to compare her own hospital’s admissions
and occupancy rates with that of other hospitals in the region, to see how
her market share is holding up.
Aggregate measures of satisfaction—from attending physicians as well as
patients—would be helpful in spotting whether performance is improving
or deteriorating.
1-13 Quality reflects how well the product conforms to promised performance. The
following examples are intended to be illustrative rather than comprehensive.
Item Elements of Quality
Television set Number of warranty claims, cost of warranty repairs,
customer satisfaction surveys, evaluation by
independent testing laboratory
University course Student evaluation scores, number of complaints,
student performance on common examinations

– 13 –
Meal in an exclusive
restaurant
Number of complaints, customer satisfaction surveys,
percentage of customers retained, restaurant reviews, tips
as an average percent of meal cost
Carry-out meal from
a restaurant
Number of complaints, customer satisfaction surveys,
percentage of customers retained
Container of milk Number of customer complaints, percentage of customers
retained, customer satisfaction surveys, purity analysis
Visit to the doctor Patient recovery rates, number of visits to have same
ailment treated, number of patient complaints
Trip on an airplane Customer satisfaction surveys, percentage of customers
retained, number of complaints, evaluation by travelers’
association
Pair of jeans Customer satisfaction surveys, percentage of customers
retained, number of complaints, durability of jeans
Novel Number of books sold, number of sales to purchasers
of author’s past novels, book reviews
University text Number of typographical errors, number of conceptual
errors, durability
PROBLEMS
1-14 One principal advantage of separating the financial reporting from the
management accounting department is that employees who are dedicated to their
particular tasks develop expertise in these tasks. The financial reporting
accountants can concentrate on the financial accounting and tax standards that
must be used to stay in compliance with the country’s accounting and tax
regulations. They can also serve as liaisons with the external auditors. The
financial reporting department can be responsible for the company’s basic
transaction and general ledger systems, ensuring that these systems reliably
capture data and have adequate internal controls.
The management accounting department can work closely with the functional
areas (for example, manufacturing, marketing, and engineering) that use
management accounting information. This will ensure that the reports are timely
and relevant for these internal users. If users wish to use specific accounting
conventions (interest on capital employed, asset valuation and depreciation using
current, not historical values), the management accountants can incorporate these
conventions in their reports. Also, weekly and monthly operating summaries for
internal information and performance measurement may not have to abide by
financial accounting requirements (for example, on inventory valuation

– 14 –
procedures). The management accountants can include nonfinancial operating
information in the reports they prepare for employees and managers, and they
can become familiar with how to access information from all the organization’s
information systems and databases, not just the general ledger. Also, some of the
information might be judgmental, subjective, and based on rough estimates. This
information might be accurate enough for certain internal uses, but not reliable
enough for external reporting and external auditing requirements.
The disadvantage of separate accounting departments is that the information
prepared for internal use may not be immediately compatible with external
reporting requirements. Therefore, an additional and perhaps costly and time-
consuming reconciliation process may be required to translate from statements
prepared for internal use into statements suitable for external reporting. Also by
having separate departments, more total accounting and finance personnel may
be required since unused capacity in one department (or function) cannot be
easily or quickly mobilized to perform duties for the other department.
1-15 (a) The controller is attempting to respond to the needs of internal users (managers
of operating activities and marketing managers) to create information that is
most relevant to these users’ needs. The company president or marketing
manager may want to ensure that currentprices cover not just the historical costs
of providing resource capacity but what the costs would be today based on
today’s investment costs. In addition, the president or marketing manager may
have wanted to see whether today’s prices cover not only today’s capital
acquisition cost but also provide an adequate return on the capital invested in the
equipment. The modifications of using replacement cost depreciation and
interest on invested capital require the controller to deviate from the generally
accepted accounting principles used for external financial statements. This
situation illustrates how a management accountant treats an internal customer as
the primary customer of the management accounting reports and therefore
customizes the internal information to the expressed preferences of this internal
customer.
(b) Management accountants should treat as their primary customers the
organization’s managers and their information and decision needs. These
needs may not always be consistent with GAAP. With modern computer
systems, the cost of reconciling from managerial information to GAAP
information should be relatively small. A benefit-cost analysis should
generally favor producing the information that will be most useful to the
managers, and leave for the financial reporting group the task of translating
and reconciling from the managerial information to the financial reporting
information.

– 15 –
1-16 Financial information provides a summary of the costs of resources used and outputs
produced in a process. Thus it is a valuable complement to direct (physical)
measures of the quality, cycle time, and throughput of a process. Consider a process
that has several inputs (materials, energy, machine time, and labor). Workers can
attempt to improve the process so that less of any given input is used to produce the
same output. But without knowing the relative cost of the various inputs, they have
little idea about which input would be most useful for gaining productivity
improvements. They could be devoting all of their time and effort to reducing the
labor content of the process, when labor may represent less than 5 percent of costs,
whereas material or machine-time inputs may represent 40–50% of process costs,
with no attention made to improve the utilization (productivity) of materials and
equipment. Without some type of financial model, employees have little idea about
the relative value of various inputs and outputs of a process, and consequently have
no guidance for priorities on where productivity improvement can have the
biggest impact.
As another point, it is often not possible to simultaneously reduce defects, speed up
the process and lower the cost of the process. For example, one could attempt to speed
up a production process, but this could lead to lower quality and higher maintenance
costs. Financial information helps to guide trade-offs among quality, responsiveness
to customers, output, and cost. For example, by having financial information, front-
line employees are in a better position to consider small, local investments that could
improve quality, responsiveness, and output. Financial information also helps
employees set priorities about where cost reduction and quality improvement would
be most beneficial. Some managers have estimated a price for nonconforming
production, so that defective outputs have higher costs associated with them. Such
information provides high visibility to the cost of nonconformance, and can be
extremely helpful in guiding workers’ energy and attention to devising methods to
reduce the incidence of nonconforming outputs. Lacking financial information,
employees may focus on improving relatively minor aspects of operating processes
that will not have much bottom-line impact for the organization.

– 16 –
CASES
Some of the mini-cases in the textbook have been drawn from Harvard Business School
teaching cases. It may seem daunting to ask students in an introductory management
accounting class to be able to “solve” cases written for the experienced MBA students
attending top graduate business schools. The point, however, is not to solve the case (even
top MBA students rarely agree on a solution to most cases). The goal is to motivate and
stimulate students to think about the broad applicability of management accounting
information in many different settings. As such, they should provide good illustrations of
the applications for management accounting information and concepts discussed in the
textbook. We have provided the names and numbers of the cases so that instructors can, at
their option, order the cases (call 1–800–545–7685 or access
http://hbsp.harvard.edu/romeo) and get a richer background for the actual context.
1-17 (a) An employee desiring to serve customers efficiently and effectively would be
interested in the time it takes to perform specified tasks and the quality of the
work performed. If standard times exist for routine jobs that Super Printing
performs, the employee can compare actual and standard times to determine
potential areas of improvement. Informationon the actual time to perform jobs
can be reported per job or per day. Information on time and resources needed
to perform nonroutine jobs can be collected as they occur, to provide input to
future pricing and staffing decisions. Assessment of the quality of the work
performed should include feedback on whether each customer’s instructions
were met, and whether the output was high quality. This feedback can be
obtained through formal or informal feedback each time a customer picks up
a job, or through formal written feedback, such as comment cards.
Information on the frequency and reasons for rework or customer
dissatisfaction with the output should help the employee in continuous
improvement efforts.
(b) Julie, the retail outlet (store) manager, will want to monitor overall outlet
profitability. This starts with subtracting all operating expenses and
purchasing costs from store revenues, but this is much too aggregate to be
very useful. The manager will want information on operational control
(quality, timeliness, and efficiency), business line and customer costs, and
financial and nonfinancial performance measurements at the store level.
For example, the manager will want day-to-day operating statistics on the
efficiency and productivity of the various machines (copies per hour);
machine availability and downtime; product defects, rework, customer
returns, and defective merchandise; and response times to customer
requests. She will want accurate information about business line cost and
profitability (black-and-white copying, color copying, facsimile services,

– 17 –
document preparation, computer services, and office supplies), and
profitability by major customer type (the business school’s MBA and
executive programs, faculty research, school administration, and other
institutional accounts). The manager can use such information in making
pricing decisions for services and customers, including volume discounts
or surcharges for orders with special requirements and services. The
information about the most profitable business lines and customer
segments will help direct marketing efforts and spending on equipment,
space, and inventory to their most profitable uses. To monitor sales trends,
the store manager could collect information about sales by hour of day,
day of week, and month of year to guide decisions about which hours the
store should be open, and also to staff the store appropriately for
predictable fluctuating demands. Possible nonfinancial strategic measures
for the outlet include market share and satisfaction for targeted customers;
time, quality, and cost of internal processes; new products and services to
offer, and employee skills and motivation.
(c) The president of Super Printing would look at profitability, perhaps
monthly, for every outlet (store) in the chain. The president would want
operating statistics that would enable him or her to compare the
profitability and operating performance of each business line across stores.
This internal benchmarking information suggests opportunities for
improvement that can be shared across stores. Competitive information
could include the market share of Super Printing relative to their
competitors. Competitive pricing information on key products and services
would also be valued. The president should also have established
information mechanisms by which consumer complaints (and satisfaction)
are directed to his or her attention.
1-18 Case based on “Romeo Engine Plant” Harvard Business School Case #9-194-
032; for a description of the “old production environment,” see “Peoria Engine
Plant” Case #9-193-082.
(a) In the old environment, workers did what they were told to do. These
directions included standards on the quantity and mix of inputs to use, the
expected yield from inputs used to outputs produced, and the operating
procedures to follow. In many of these types of environments, the workers
were not even supplied with measures of their inputs used and outputs
produced, but they would be chastised by their supervisors should yields
and productivity fall below standard, or if defects and scrap exceeded
budgeted levels. Therefore, the information needs of workers were
minimal—just what to produce and what amount and type of inputs to use.

– 18 –
(b) In the new environment, workers need information after each batch of
productive work on the amount of defects, scrap, and downtime, and ratios
of output produced to inputs consumed. Any defect or unexpected scrap
will be analyzed immediately to determine the cause, so that the cause can
be fixed as soon as possible. Consistent sources of downtime or defects
will be identified through histograms and Pareto diagrams so that
employees’ problem-solving energies can be directed and focused on the
root causes that are leading to the highest percentage of problems. Special
computer programs may be written to reveal the bottleneck resource to the
workers so that they can concentrate on fixing any persistent problems with
this bottleneck resource and finding ways to expand its productive
capacity. In this way, productive capacity of the equipment and processes
can be continually increased without additional capital investment.
Information on yields and productivity will be supplied and compared, via
trend analysis, to recent experience. If continuous improvement is not
visible on the trend lines, the employees may take, as a team task, the job
of brainstorming and making suggestions to find new ways to improve
yields and productivity. In the old environment, workers were told exactly
what to do and were rarely given information or feedback about their
performance. The new environment, in contrast, tasks workers with
generating the ideas and solutions leading to continual reductions in
defects, downtime, and scrap, and associated increases in productivity—
the ratio of good items produced to inputs consumed.
1-19 Case drawn from an episode reported in “Analog Devices: The Half-Life
System” Harvard Business School Case #9-190-061.
This production manager has expressed very clearly how he uses a mix of financial
and nonfinancial information for his task. He disdains cost variance reports because
he wants to focus on continuous improvement of performance. The cost variance
reports evaluate performance against preset standards that he does not consider
relevant for this continuous improvement objective. Also the cost variances are, at
best, after the fact; they are the results, not the drivers, of the actions he is taking. The
manager wants to focus on improving the drivers of those results.
Interestingly, he does want to see one set of financial measures on a daily basis: orders
booked and sales (billings). The ratio of these two financial measures, commonly
referred to as the book-to-billings ratio, is a common measure in the semiconductor
industry. When greater than one, the ratio indicates an increase in future business
activity. When the ratio is less than one, business activity will contract in the near
future. So the production manager is getting a snapshot each day about whether

– 19 –
activity in his department will be increasing or decreasing in the near future. The other
business level measure he looks at daily is on-time-delivery (OTD), a critical
customer-based measure. Deteriorating OTD performance could be caused by delays
in production. So the production manager is checking on whether business unit
performance is improving or deteriorating, and can calibrate this performance against
operating statistics in his own department.
Thus, this production manager’s choices are informative in answering the
question of how the management accountant should determine an appropriate
blend of financial and nonfinancial measures for operating people. The
production manager focuses on leading indicators of future activity, drivers of
cost and performance, and a measure of customer satisfaction.
Specifically, the production manager is supplied two financial measures that
enable him to calculate a leading indicator of future business activity in his
department, and a nonfinancial measure, on-time delivery, that provides an ex
post indicator of how his department’s performance (on quality, first-pass yields,
and cycle time) may have influenced a key business unit measure of customer
satisfaction. For feedback on his department’s performance, the manager looks
weekly at quality indicators and yields. This is where he feels that traditional cost
variance information is least useful to him. He wants to concentrate on the drivers
of cost and performance—defects, yields, and scrap—figuring that if these
improve the costs will eventually follow.
It is interesting that monthly he wants to look at his departmental spending. He can
control spending on discretionary items like travel and maintenance, and wants
feedback, but only monthly, on his department’s spending performance. Also, if
improved quality and yields are being realized, then he should eventually be able to
reduce staffing in his department, and this reduction will show up in lower levels of
departmental expenses. Thus, he views cost reduction as a long-term goal, wants
periodic but not daily or weekly feedback on expenses, and, in the short run
concentrates on a few key drivers—quality and yield—of long-term performance.
1-20 For government and nonprofit agencies, the financial information provides little
useful information, except that the agency did or did not overspend its budgeted or
authorized amount. An agency would not be considered to have had a terrific year
because it stayed within $10 of its budget, or spent 10% less than its budget. For
government and nonprofit agencies, success is not measured in financial terms.
Success should be measured in the outcomes achieved. This requires the agency to
have a clear definition of its mission and its targeted customer base. With such a
mission and a targeted set of constituencies, it can then formulate objectives and
measures to motivate and focus employees towards achieving organizational

– 20 –
objectives. Ex post, the agency can measure the outcomes from its activities to see
whether it has delivered on its mission and objectives.
A comprehensive performance measurement system for a government or nonprofit
agency can include such financial measures as operating expenses as a targeted
percentage of total funds raised or disbursed. For nonprofits, the financial perspective
could also include measurement of funds raised relative to targeted amounts, and
increases in contributions per donor.
The performance measurement system can also include measures of interest to the
specific beneficiaries of the agency or the donors who provide funds for the agency.
Consider agroupliketheNature ConservancyortheSierraClub. From the perspective
of donors to these organizations (the customers), performance on objectives can be
measured, for example, by acres preserved and species protected. United Way
organizations may measure improvements in the local community served by the
number of agencies supported by United Way. One would need to think about
objectives and measures for both the providers of funds to the organization (taxpayers
or donors) and the recipients of the services provided by the organization.
The performance measurement system can also include measures to monitor the
business processes required to meet the objectives of donors (or taxpayers) and
beneficiaries. Such objectives could include high quality delivery of services,
speedy and zero defect responses to donors and beneficiaries, innovative services
for recipients, and recognition of donors and volunteers.
Finally, the performance measurement system can include measures on learning,
growth, and innovation. Relevant objectives include improving the skills and
motivation of employees, and improving access to information about donors,
beneficiaries, and volunteers.

Exploring the Variety of Random
Documents with Different Content

whenever he might appeal for it. But the mention of the title sent his
thoughts on their old errand.
"Sir," he said, "for many years I have been preparing myself for the
Turreequt, and without that I can be neither a poor Fakeer or rise to
the dignity of one of God's divines, a Musháekh. The Lord has
directed my path hitherto by wonderful events, and I follow the
Eastern way; but I see the need of changing it; and you, Kazee
Sahib, to whom such mysteries are known, can direct me to the
proper course."
"I see but one," he replied. "There is no saint in all these provinces,
but the descendant of Syud Geesoo Duráz of Gulburgah, to whom
thou couldst go for reception into the Divine order. All other shrines
are inaccessible to thee, Huzrut, on account of their distance and thy
venerable age. Within a short time is the oorus (anniversary) of the
holy saint, Syud Sofee Surmust, at Sugger; and there thousands of
Fakeers assemble, of whom many go on to Gulburgah. I can direct
thee to Sugger, where I have many friends and some humble
disciples; and they will guide thee, and further thee on thy way. Let
me see! Thy route is changed to the north, therefore—
Kunujgin Bamshin, Kunujgin Bisma,
Kunujgin Bamshin, Kunujgin Bimash.[1]
"And then"—and he counted rapidly on his fingers—"Wednesday will
be your day for proceeding on your journey, and the Rujub-ool-Gyb
will be in the northern quarter, which is good for thee, at the first
watch of the day, which is convenient. And if ye all eat a little sour
curds for your breakfast, the journey will lead to a happy result. But
there is no other good position of the Rujub-ool-Gyb for many days
after that, and in a strait like this ye should risk nothing."
The Kazee was an experienced director of journeys and well versed
in casting nativities, selecting proper days for marriages and
betrothals; and in these respects there was no one who could
compete with him; and as the old Syud saw that he was not a
pretender, he put the more confidence in his directions.

"I would you could see my granddaughter's horoscope which I cast
at her birth myself, or perhaps you have not leisure?"
"I have leisure before me ere it is time to depart, and you will do me
a favour if you will show it to me, Huzrut. I will return after I have
broken my fast; and the food is even now ready in the worthy
Moolla's house, and I must not disappoint his hospitality."
"I have been thinking," said Burma, "how we can best convey the
holy Syud to Sugger; and I have a plan in my mind which, if it is
approved of, I will put in execution. Syud Moostafa, the Persian
secretary of the Rajah, is my friend, and Daood Khan Bhylmee, the
leader of the Bhylmee division of horse, is a chief to whom my force
is attached. I will write to them now, if I may, and beg that an escort
of horse may be sent to meet Huzrut at Hoonsigee, where he should
sleep, and, rising early, go on to Wakin-Keyra; and this could be
done without any fatigue. From hence I can send my own palkee,
and a litter for the child, and my people as escort."
"A good thought," said the Kazee; "I do not think Huzrut will make
any objection."
"Indeed, no," returned the old man; "ye are only too kind to one
who has been a trouble to you both. But before we proceed to make
other arrangements, may I inquire whether any of the Dacoits are
here, I should like to ask them some questions. Who were they?"
"Jutts and Káikarees," replied Burma; "the boldest of all Dacoits and
robbers; and who would not be tempted by the sum assured? The
leader was Kalloo Naik, a bold, reckless fellow, whom I wounded last
night in the scuffle; and, as the Kazee Sahib knows, when he had
thrown that paper to us, he tore the bandages from his wound, and
died at once. The rest the Kazee Sahib gave over to me, and as one
of my people had been slain, they were all hanged but one. It will be
a lesson to the tribe not to attempt dacoity here, and recently there
has been more than we liked I only sent away one, a boy, who was,
perhaps, a spy; and I wrote a letter to the clans that for every
duróra they committed inside our boundaries, I would hang two

men, one Jutt and one Káikaree; and this will keep them quiet for
some time, for they know that Runga and I always do exactly as we
say. If we did not, none of us could sleep safely in our beds. Care for
nothing, Huzrut, all shall be prepared for ye, and my wife will come
to Zóra presently, and comfort her."
After a while, therefore, the good lady came, bringing with her bags
of rice and vermicelli, baskets of sweetmeats, and provisions enough
to have lasted them for months. She told Zóra all that had
happened, and other women dropping in, related every event of the
night with wonderful increase of incidents at each narrative. The
Kazee, too, returned, and Zóra's horoscope was produced and
discussed. We will not trouble the reader with particulars of
astrological predictions in regard to her, but no doubt certain
dangers, as well as strokes of good fortune, troubles, and joys, were
set forth, which, as they will have their places in this history, need
not be anticipated. On taking his leave to depart, the worthy Kazee
gave the Marathi letter of Osman Beg to the robber, and that to
himself in Persian, to Zóra, bidding her keep them about her person,
for the time might come when they would be of use.
Although they had been in Kukeyra less than two months, yet they
left the place with regret. Zóra and her grandfather had both
established separate interests in the place. It was one in which Zóra
could go about at all times of the day as she had done in the island
fortress, and all her old vocations found ample scope for exercise;
for in attendance on the sick, and in distribution of medicines, her
charitable heart knew no difference between Beydur and Hindoo, or
Mussulman. Then it was pleasant to stroll with Burma's wife to her
pretty garden, and sit among the cool plantain groves, and under
the shade of great mango trees, and hold her little school there,
when Abba could spare her; or, when at home, to dream in her seat
by the old saint's tomb, under the great banian tree, and watch the
lizards and grey squirrels at play, and the shy and pretty tree birds
hop silently from branch to branch. But Zóra would not have
remained after the incidents of Friday night; she dared not. The
unscrupulous attempts of her enemy to possess himself of her, the

narrow escape she had had of capture—perhaps death, or worse—
caused her to shudder as she thought of them; and all she wished
for was to be at rest, far away; where she cared not, so she and
Abba were safe.
Even Beejapoor, Burma said, was dangerous, so long as her position
was unassured; and he explained to her how lawless bands of men
existed there who were ready to undertake any villainy for money,
and who, in any number, might be hired by Osman Beg, and prove
more successful than the robbers had been where she was. It had
been a weary thought, this wandering of her grandfather's, but
under the terror that possessed her it had even become welcome
now, and Zóra accepted it as part of her fate which could not be
averted, and must be endured. Every hour, as the day of departure
drew nigh, her grandfather grew more and more petulant and
doubtful. They must walk, he said, for they were Fakeers, and had
no right to ride. They must beg their daily bread, for they had no
need to care for food, and the good Alla would send them what they
wanted. At every village they should sing an invocation or a hymn,
and he had by heart a great number of these; or they should go
about villages and towns with a wallet collecting handfuls of meal, or
rice, or pulse. And the old man's determination on this subject
seemed unalterable. He even one day sat down at his gate, and
spread a sheet, and blessed the passers by, and some threw pice
and others cowries, and in the evening Zóra came and took them
up; but there was hardly a rupee's worth in all. That, however, was
only a trial, the old man said, in a place where they were known to
be well provided, and they would do better elsewhere. Still it was a
dreary prospect.
They had not to walk, however. During the night before the day of
proposed departure, a small party of horse arrived from Wakin-
Keyra, and informed Burma that two litters with bearers would meet
them at Hoonsigee. So Burma provided his own palanquin for the
old man, and a light litter for Zóra, and the ponies were driven on by
Ahmed, and the little baggage was distributed as before; but Zóra
gave the two pet cows and the goats to Burma's wife, with many

tears, and that good lady kissed her feet, and the children wept
aloud at parting with their kind friend. Finally, before noon of
Wednesday they set out, and travelled to the end of their stage
comfortably; nay, so luxuriously, that the old Syud declared it was
more like a nobleman's journey than a poor Fakeer's, and would
have no more such after he reached Wakin-Keyra.
So, passing low hills and rocky ground, but with many pretty villages
surrounded by green fields and gardens, they reached their
destination; and the old Syud, who had been thinking about it all the
way, as soon as they arrived at the gate of the little town, desired
his litter to be set down. Zóra spread a sheet before him, and seated
herself on one side, but rather behind him; and Ahmed, giving up
charge of the ponies to Mamoolla, bid her go into the mosque,
where they were to put up, and unload the animals, with the help of
some of the horsemen's grooms. Then, to the astonishment of the
horsemen, one of the little invocations was sung every now and then
by all; and, as people began to collect, small contributions were
thrown upon the cloth till it was fairly covered; and after her
grandfather sung a thanksgiving, though his voice was thin and
quavering, Zóra gathered the ends of the cloth together, and,
leading him, she carried it to the mosque, where he first took the
cloth as it was, and, kneeling down before the pulpit steps, offered
the whole to God, and then sat down to count it. There were more
than seven rupees in all, and he gave two to the Moolla and Patell of
the town to distribute in charity. "We can live on less than five
rupees a day," he said, chuckling, "and we can save two for the
expenses of the Turreequt. Oh, blessed day that I departed from
slothfulness and idleness; and blessed be Alla, the gracious, who
thus leads me, a poor sinner, to his salvation."
It was pleasant, too, in the evening to find people gather about him
in the mosque. Zóra and Mamoolla, with Ahmed's help, had nailed
up a carpet across a corner as a screen, and sat behind it close to
him, and warned off those who would have disturbed his
meditations by idle questions; but after he had gone through his
daily exercise on the points of salvation and the means of its

attainment, people came in, and the conversation became general,
and to the Syud delightful, for several of the horsemen belonged to
Beejapoor, and some had family or clannish surnames which were
familiar, and it was difficult to preserve the entire incognito which he
had assumed. Presently the call to evening prayer was well sung by
the muezzin, and after a plentiful meal they lay down and slept. Not
for years past had Zóra remembered her grandfather so cheerful or
so full of hope. He woke early, for the azàn was proclaimed; and
they prayed together, for none else had arisen. Then he said to Zóra,
"Come, child! we must do our duty;" and taking a long piece of
strong cloth, used to make a bundle, she held it by the four corners,
and they went their way through the streets, with the simple cry of
"Alla diláya to leónga"—"if God gives I will take." Now and then they
stopped to sing an invocation, and the clear voice of Zóra sounded
sweetly in the fresh morning air. Good housewives were grinding at
their mills with many a rough unmelodious song, but none refused
to put a handful of meal, or pulse, or rice, into the extemporised
basket, which soon became so heavy that Zóra could scarcely carry
it, and they returned. When it was all poured out, it formed a goodly
heap, and the Syud patted it with his hand and was thankful for it.
"We could not eat it all in two days, child," he said; "and we have
the money besides. Why need we fear, so long as we put our trust in
the granter of prayer?"
After they had all eaten they proceeded as they had done the day
before, and the road was less stony and rugged; and when they had
passed through a small range of rocky hills and over the
embankment of the pretty irrigation lake of Bohnal, with the
widespread waters to the west sparkling in the sun and the green
rice fields to the east, the fortifications of Wakin-Keyra at the
termination of a high and rugged mass of mountains fell on Zóra's
sight; and one of the horsemen, dashing up to the Syud's palanquin,
told him that he was going on, and that if he would remain for about
an hour under the shade of one of the great banian trees of the
embankment, and then follow, he would find all prepared to receive
him. So the litters being placed together, they got out of them and

sat down, while the waves of the lake dashed among the stones
which formed the facing of the earthen bank, with a pleasant
refreshing murmur.
FOOTNOTE:
[1] Letters which denote points of the compass.

CHAPTER VIII.
CASTING OUT DEVILS.
It was but a short distance, barely more than a mile, to the entrance
to the strange fortress in which Pám Naik, the Beydur Prince, held
his Court. All that could be seen from a distance were two separate
forts on each side of what might be called the gate, well built of
granite, and picturesquely and commandingly situated on the
summits of high rocks, much after the fashion of the bastions of
Juldroog. From these forts, and from bastions below them, two lines
of fortification had been carried along the face of the hill to the top,
where they were lost in woods that crowned the summit. Flags were
flying on all these towers and bastions, which gave the grim-looking
works a cheerful expression; and the great standard of the Beydur
flew out from the highest tower, fluttering in the western breeze. At
the barrier itself the friend of Burma Naik, Syud Moostafa, the Naik's
Persian secretary, with others, were in attendance, who received the
old man with profound salutations, while some respectable-looking
mamas in like manner saluted Zóra, and bid both welcome. They
were to remain in the Syud's house, where apartments had been
prepared for them; and while her grandfather was carried off, much
against his wish, to visit the great Naik himself, Zóra was conducted
to the house in which they were to stay.
Wakin-Keyra was a strong place. Inside the second barrier of huge
natural rocks the valley extended into a considerable bay or basin,
filled by a small artificial lake formed by damming up a stream which
descended from the hills. This lake was nearly circular, or perhaps
more of an oval shape, and was surrounded by a short sward,
always green, except where rocks jutted out from the mountain side,
and dipped into the water. All round the sides of this natural basin

were the houses of the inhabitants, of all castes, built of stone,
cemented with clay or mortar, according to the ability of the builder,
and with terraced roofs of lime or clay. The houses seemed to end
with a level piece of ground at the eastern end, but from its height,
the houses that covered it, and extended to some distance among
the woods, could not be seen. The Naik's house, or palace, occupied
the greater part of the south side of the amphitheatre, and, though
it consisted of a great number of separate buildings and courts,
could hardly be distinguished from other private houses that
adjoined it, being built in the same manner, in very homely fashion.
The old Syud's account of his reception by the Beydur Rajah Pám
Naik was amusing. He had accompanied the Persian secretary to the
palace, as it was called, and had been ushered into the presence of
the Prince, to whom he made his salutation. "I would have given
much to see him, as he spoke kindly to me in Canarese—his own
language—but that was impossible; so I had to listen only, and the
secretary and a Brahmin Moonshi, who spoke good Persian,
interpreted for me. The Rajah had a number of wants, which I must
try to satisfy. In the first place, the new part of his palace, where he
wishes to live, is at present haunted by sprites and demons, who
must be exorcised and sent away. He has tried many Hindoo
exorcists, Brahmins and Bairagees, and some Mussulmans, of whom
a saint, who is called the Kala Peer, or Black Saint, was partly
successful in one building; but in the others the spirits answered that
they would not depart, as they were very comfortable, and they
remained. Then the youngest Ranee is troubled with bad visions and
dreams at nights, and has become thin and weak, and several
children in the house are ailing and the Prince himself has low
spirits; and I found his pulse very irregular. So all these things have
to be looked after; and thou wilt have many amulets, charms,
puleetas, and exorcisms for the house to copy for me, Zóra, and I
shall be several days at the work. I have told the Rajah that I cannot
begin so arduous and delicate a task without purification and some
fasting for three days; and our host, who knows a little of the
science, will afford me every facility. And besides, Zóra, he is rich,

this Prince, and will give me a great donation, and that will help me
in the Turreequt. Ah, child! we shall win that, by the blessing of Alla,
and live happily till death."
"If you will show me which figures you wish for," replied Zóra, "I will
get the book, and copy them for you."
"Not yet, not yet," replied her grandfather. "I have to ascertain what
sort of spirits they are who have taken possession of these poor
people, who are but low caste infidels; and they must be questioned
in order that they may declare themselves. And thou wilt have to
come too, Zóra, to help me with the women, for they are in private,
it seems, and cannot see a man, though I am old and blind; which is
foolishness. But they are very ignorant, I fear. And how hast thou
been received and cared for, my child?"
"Very kindly, Abba," replied Zóra; "and we have several rooms, and
this open verandah to sit in, from which we can see over the whole
of the strange city which lies before us—the strangest I ever saw or
heard of. There are not so much as ten ells of level ground in it, and
the streets are mere paths up the mountain side, and they rise from
the pretty tank which fills the bottom. All appears to be a mass of
houses, tier above tier; and there is no level ground except at the
top, where I see more houses and trees, and green grass. But they
are all Beydur houses, they tell me."
"Then where can we go for our evening and morning begging, child?
Once we have begun that, we must not abandon it."
"I know not, Abba; but why beg now? More food has been sent from
the palace than would last us a week; and the Brahmin clerk who
came with it said the same quantity would come every day."
"I tell thee, child, it must be, even if we sat at the door in the street.
Once a vow is vowed to the Lord, can it be recalled? God forbid! Our
host is too pious a person to object to it, and I will explain all. Now I
must bathe. Tell Mamoolla and Ahmed to prepare the hot water
while I lie down for a while to meditate, or perchance sleep. At the
time of evening prayer the secretary will return home, and we can

go together, for it is but a step from hence. Perhaps letters may be
sent for us."
On her own part Zóra was curious to see the ladies of the Beydur
Prince's family, and the deportment of a perhaps barbarous Court;
and as she arrived at the palace in a closed litter, several women
servants took charge of her, and she was conducted up a flight of
stairs which led to an open gallery, fitted with transparent screens of
fine bamboo work, about the middle of which sat the Ranee of the
family and several children, who rose courteously to receive Zóra,
and—owing to her perfect knowledge of Canarese—put the girl at
her ease at once. Never had she met with any persons so loquacious
and inquisitive.
They had heard of Juldroog; and an elderly woman present had
even paid a visit to Cháya Bhugwuti in fulfilment of a vow, and seen
the river mother in her fury. And Zóra had lived within sight and
sound of it all her life. Was she married? Was she even in seclusion?
And why not? She was too old and too beautiful to be allowed to go
abroad into the world. Had she no jewels, no fine clothes? nothing
but the coarse soosi she wore, and coarse muslin over it? No, Zóra
had replied, they were Fakeers, and every day they begged for alms
in the name of Ali, the commander of the faithful. Long they had
talked thus, and in the evening lamps were lighted, and Zóra could
see how homely everything around her was, except the ladies'
persons, for they were covered with valuable jewels and diamonds,
which flashed in the lamplight, while they wore magnificent saris of
silk, with rich gold borders and ends, very valuable.
Then, after a while, her grandfather's approach was announced, and
the ladies rose and retired into an inner room, and the Rajah
entered, followed by the old man, led by the secretary and some
Brahmins and Beydurs. He did not notice Zóra, who had retreated
into a corner with some of the women servants or slaves, and was
awaiting the result of her grandfather's visit with some anxiety as to
what would happen. Presently he sent for her, and bade her sit by
him, and observe for him.

The Rajah, a short, stout man, of fair complexion for a Beydur,
seated himself, after a proclamation of his titles by his silver mace-
bearers, who then withdrew; and the girl who was possessed by the
evil spirit was sent for, Zóra having been cautioned to observe
exactly what happened. As he had seated himself, her grandfather
had called for a censer and some incense powder; and as Zóra told
him the girl was entering the room he threw it on the live charcoal
with a paper charm, and a great smoke arose; during which time he
was muttering Arabic to himself. Zóra noticed that the girl, who
might be about her own age, now trembled violently, and seemed
slightly convulsed. She had made efforts with her arms and hands as
if to put away the censer, and even to cry out and escape; but she
was held firmly by her attendants.
"Bring her to me, that I may breathe upon her," said the old man. "I
will not hurt her, but that evil spirit must come out of her, else she
will suffer and die. At present it is living in her life."
But the girl would not move; and though they raised her to her feet,
she sank down again, shivering and screaming; but the women took
her up, and laid her on the carpet before the old man, so that he
could place his right hand on her head. Then he said to her in a
gentle voice, after repeating another charm, and casting more
incense into the censer,—
"Who art thou that possesseth this girl? Speak!" But there was no
reply.
"I adjure thee, in the name of Solomon, son of David, of Jibbreel
and Azraeel, and of ye, O Abd-ool-Zadir, Zadir Jillaneo, Bhytab,
Hunmuntoo, Nursimha, and Bhyraon; speak, and give me thy
name!"
Then the girl foamed at the mouth and cried with an exceeding
bitter cry, "I am Bassuppa! let me dwell in peace. I love this body,
and will remain." The voice was hoarse and deep, like that of a man,
and contrasted fearfully with the slight girlish form from which it
proceeded.

"Who was Bassuppa?" asked the Syud, but the girl did not answer;
she only groaned and sighed bitterly, "Let me alone, let me alone,
lest I kill her."
"Who was Bassuppa?" asked the Syud of the Rajah.
"He was her attendant bearer when she was young, and he loved
her much, as she did him. He died, and they carried him on a bier
down from his home to the burning place, and she saw his body
from this balcony over the gate, where the nobat plays. She was
immediately attacked by convulsions; and when again she became
sensible, declared that Bassuppa had turned his head, opened his
eyes, and looked at her, and had remained in her ever since."
"Enough! I understand now what is to be done," said the old man to
the Rajah. "It is a powerful spirit, but one over whom I have
command. Fear not, thy child shall be well in three days, and
restored to thee."
"She is my pet, my darling," replied the Rajah, with emotion, "and
her mother's too. If thou drivest this spirit from the child thou shalt
know that a Beydur Prince can be grateful."
"Speak not, my lord, lest you break the spell; it is already working,
as I see the child's lips moving. Listen!"
"I must have time to think," she said. "Let me alone till the third day,
then I will answer thee."
"Keep her very quiet," said the old man; "let her be amused; make a
doll's feast for her, or take her to some garden where she can play,
and I will send my granddaughter with some powders that must be
given to her as she goes to sleep at night, and as she rises in the
morning. And now, Rajah Sahib, may we depart?"
Then pán and uttar were brought, and garlands of flowers; and on a
silver tray, covered with brocade, were a few pán leaves with five
large gold coins on them; and the old man, when Zóra whispered to
him, took them up and tied them in the end of his scarf. But in
regard to his vow of begging he would not relax, and when they

reached their house her grandfather called to Zóra and said, "We
must go, my child," and she led him into the street, along which he
walked with difficulty nearly to the palace gate, where they stopped
to sing one of the invocations; and Zóra's voice was so sweet, that
many of those who came to the evening Court dropped money into
her bag; and after a while they returned, and she found that there
was more in it than had ever been before.
Zóra saw little of her hostess, who was a proud woman of a high
Syud family, relations of the Wallee, or saint, of the city, and she had
by no means approved of her husband inviting the old Dervish to her
house. "Thank the Lord we are people of family," she said to him,
"and in my father's house. I never heard of a Fakeer being invited to
reside in it, or to be attended by our servants as if he were a Nawab.
They used to live without, and take what was left of our meals, and
that was good enough for them. But this old Syud has very fine
notions; his servant and grandchild must cook for him all sorts of
dainty dishes, which, I own, they do very well; but they are Fakeers
all the same; and though they earn riches, ay, riches every day, they
go out at night when that great girl ought to be shut up, and go and
sing and bring back a bag of money. I saw them count what they
had gained, and there were many rupees, and even some hoons
among the coppers. Can this be right?"
"Peace!" said her husband; "thy mouth is bitter, Sitara-bee. Thou
shouldst not complain, for all that comes from the palace goes to
thee. I tell thee, learned as I am esteemed to be, I have never met
his equal yet, whether in medicine or exorcism. Peace, therefore! the
time will come that thou wilt esteem it an honour to have had such a
guest beneath thy roof."
"And the girl embroiders caps and knits drawers-strings," cried the
dame, with a sneer, "and sells them; and bodices too. Is that a holy
occupation?"
"Peace, I say again, Beebee! Thy mouth is bitter and thy tongue
long, and it is not good to speak evil of a holy Syud;" and he went
out before his wife could reply, as he saw she was determined to

have the last word; but she sat down to her spinning-wheel and
grumbled notwithstanding. "Shall I ask the girl to get me an amulet
against barrenness?" she said to herself, after a while. "I am yet
young enough. I wonder what it would cost, or whether the Dervish
would give it in exchange for his lodging. I must see about this, for
such things are." And she stopped her wheel and sat meditating,
with her forefinger between her teeth; while, by the smile that
spread over her face, her thoughts were apparently pleasant ones.
The Ranee and the children had departed to the garden at Bohnal,
where they were always glad to go to escape the confinement of the
palace. There they played about, sat under the shade of the fine
trees, went to fish in the lake, and had a play performed by some
strolling weavers and stone-cutters, who had joined together for the
occasion. They represented scenes in the life of Krishna, the tutelary
divinity of the Rajah's family, and their performance always afforded
a great treat. The girl who had been affected by demoniacal
influences was now the merriest of the party, and her mother, with a
thankful heart, recognised the improvement with gratitude. But what
would be the final result? Would the science of the Dervish prevail
over, as she believed, the Satanic influence? Well, the third day had
arrived, and they returned early in the morning; and soon after a
message was brought to the Dervish that the child had fallen down
in a fit, and was talking and raving incoherently. A palanquin had
been sent for him, accompanied by the secretary, and he was to
come directly. But he did not go. He sent word that he had to keep
himself pure during the day, and must remain in prayer till evening,
when he would come. Meanwhile the child was to be kept quiet, and
would most likely sleep.
Zóra heard him during most part of the day repeating incantations,
or verses from the Koran, but he would eat nothing. Altogether Zóra
was anxious; and though she continued at her embroidery all day
she was not the less disturbed, for how many stories had not her
grandfather told her of failures in exorcism when the demon had, in
spite, entered into the body of the exorcist. "What charm would her
grandfather use?" and she had the book on the science, written by

His Excellency Mahomed Ghous, upon her knee, when her
grandfather called to her.
"Child," he said, "my soul is troubled, for I do not remember a
passage in the holy book that I need to recollect. Refer to it, and
follow me while I repeat the exorcism entirely. If I fail anywhere,
stop me. The puleeta to be used is one where the demon is strange
and unknown, and begins, 'Whoever ye are.' It is a square, with a
smaller square at the right hand upper corner, which is divided into
sixteen even portions."
"I have it here, Abba; say on."
We need not quote the incantation, but the old man repeated it
correctly, and was pleased. "Inshalla, child!" he said, "we shall gain
the victory. I ought to wield the charm myself, but there is no help
for that, blind as I am; thou must do it for me, and as I shall recite
the incantation very slowly, thou canst copy the figures, which must
be burned while the ink is wet. Meanwhile study it well, that thou
make no mistake."
In the evening they proceeded to the palace, where the girl was still
moaning in her heavy sleep. All those around her could distinguish,
were the words, "He must not come! I will not depart!" The old man
had prepared an earthen pot with a cover, which contained some
fruits and seeds, and placed some silver pieces of money in it, and
smeared the inside with ground sandalwood paste. Then he passed
his hand over the child several times from head to foot; and as the
earthen lamp placed on the top of this vessel was lighted, three
kinds of oil being used, those sitting around observed the girl
become restless, flinging about her arms and sighing deeply. Her
mattress, which had been laid on the floor, was now removed, and
the place washed with liquid red clay and cow-dung, and she was
taken up and laid upon it; then the exorcist passed his hands over
her again, and incense and perfumes were lighted, which cast up
volumes of smoke, so that the old man's face as he sat at the girl's
feet could hardly be seen. When this had subsided a little he told
Zóra to be ready; and she, taking up the pen that had been

provided, rapidly drew the outline of the charm large enough to
admit of her writing the incantation. The group formed a strange
and solemn picture. The girl, lying restless and insensible, extended
on the floor, with the venerable old Syud, with his anxious yet
benevolent face and long white beard, sitting at her feet, with Zóra
by his side. At the patient's head were her mother and several other
ladies and servants, weeping bitterly, while the Rajah himself, with
the secretary, who was a privileged person, watched the result with
intense interest. The room was dark; except where the lamp cast a
dim yellow light upon the group, and wreaths of smoke still eddied
about the ceiling and walls, seeking egress. The only sounds were
the sobs of the women, the occasional low moans of the patient,
and the grating sound of Zóra's pen as it passed over the paper. At
last the old man, with the usual invocation, "In the name of God
most clement and merciful," began the incantation, "Whoever ye
are;" while Zóra plied her pen as fast as she could, copying from the
book before her. Every name pronounced was cried with a loud
voice, and a considerable pause made, so that Zóra was not hurried,
and the whole ceremony being repeated three times, her
grandfather took the pen, and Zóra directing his hand to the place,
he wrote the concluding words and breathed over the whole. Then
the paper was sprinkled with some scented powder, and rolled up
tightly, a thread of fine cotton being passed round it; then it was
lighted, and as the old man recited passages from the Koran, green
and red-coloured flames issued from the burning roll, which all could
see; but the girl opened her large eyes, shuddered, and tried to hide
her face in the floor. As the paper burned out, she was convulsed for
a short time, and then lay still; finally she sat up, opened and
rubbed her eyes, and stretching out her arms, said quietly to them
all, "Where am I? What has been done to me? There was something
sitting on my chest," she continued, innocently, "and it is gone!"
"Shookr! Hazar shookr! Thanks, a thousand thanks!" exclaimed the
Dervish. "Lord, thou hast heard my prayer. Friends, he that
possessed the child is gone, but he is here among us!"

At this announcement every one shuddered, and the old exorcist
called to the spirit to reply; but there was no answer. He then asked
the girl whether anything had been said or whispered to her, and
she replied innocently, "Yes. Bassuppa told me he was going away
for ever, and would never return; he could not remain, because
some one was too powerful, and he cried very much, and I saw him
no more. Then I awoke and saw you all;" and she arose, went to the
Dervish, and prostrating herself, kissed his feet, and laid her head
against them, and then kissed Zóra's feet, and then her father's and
mother's, and sisters' all round; and all of them wept tears of joy,
while her mother became so excited and hysterical that she was led
away for awhile, and the old man gave directions as to where a
strong charm was to be pasted up over every door and window;
and, calling the girl, he placed another amulet in a handkerchief, and
bound it round her arm, till a proper silver case could be made for it;
also one to be worn round her neck, attached to her necklace. And
he put his hands on her head, and wished her joy and peace in her
life, and children to cheer it.
(Perhaps some of my readers will say, Why was this piece of
superstitious observance introduced? To which we reply, that it is
only as one instance of the many strange beliefs in supernatural
effects which exist among Mussulmans and other classes of the
people now, and have done so from the earliest times. Many curious
and interesting episodes of lives turn upon them, and the belief in
them is universal, with exorcisms of evil, mischievous and malignant
demons and spirits. There are charms supplied against every
mischance of man or womanhood, youth or age, against haunted
houses and the evil eye. On the other hand, there are charms for
evil purposes, which are believed and practised as much as the
others. The incidents of the exorcism described here took place in
presence of the writer of this tale when in India, and he could
adduce many equally strange and affecting, or, in some instances,
detestable.)
"We can ill repay this kindness, Huzrut," said the Rajah, as they
adjourned into the hall of audience, and sat down; "but if you will

accept of what I offer, and keep it in remembrance of me, I shall be
thankful."
"I would rather, my lord, wait till I am assured that what I have done
is effectual," replied the old man, respectfully; "and I must see your
daughter every day."
"As you please," returned the Rajah. "I will have my gifts sealed up,
and the day you have to depart they shall be given to you. As to
your granddaughter, I must leave her to the Lady Ranee, and you
must promise me not to interfere with her."
"But at least you cannot refuse this to shield you from the chill night
wind," he continued; and he threw a delicate white Cashmere shawl
of some value over the old man's shoulders. As to Zóra, she was
newly dressed by the good Ranee; and when she emerged from her
palanquin at the secretary's house, she appeared in a gorgeous
green silk sari, delicately shot with crimson. She had a valuable gold
ring round her neck, and a gold pair of bracelets, and the whole
formed a very costly gift. "Would that I could see thee, Zóra," said
her grandfather, as he felt the soft rich silk and its heavy gold
borders, and touched the ornaments; "but they befit thee, and some
day——" and here he broke off suddenly, and was silent. As to Zóra
herself, perhaps, there was a touch of vanity as well as gratification
in her mind, for she did not take off the grand clothes immediately;
and old Mamoolla came and peered at her all over, and went and lit
another lamp; and the secretary's wife came and looked also, and
cried aloud her congratulations in wonder; but she was jealous and
envious in her heart, and I am afraid her husband had much to bear
in her accusations of idleness, in that he was not so good an exorcist
as the venerable old Dervish. "Those people get money by their
work," said the dame, with a sneer. "The girl has presents worth
hundreds of rupees; when wilt thou give me a gold neck ring and
bracelet, or a sari like hers? And who knows what the old Syud has
got besides. Touba! Touba! Thou a Syud, and a man of letters,
shouldst be able to do as much as he."

The secretary did not vouchsafe a reply. He had been looking at
Zóra's glorious eyes and expressive face all the evening, as they sat
around the ailing child, and I think that more beautiful visions than
his wife's shrewish face excluded thought of her more than she
would have liked.
The fame of the old Dervish's cure, or, as some now called him, the
Hukeems, or Physician, spread not only through the town but
through the country, and applicants for relief thronged upon him,
making offerings which were sometimes considerable; but from most
people he would take nothing; yet to Zóra's perception they were
growing rich, and, as Abba said, with a look of satisfaction, there
was enough to make the Turreequt easy; and, after that, to settle in
some pleasant place and to become a Wallee, or saint, at whose
tomb people should come and pray.

CHAPTER IX.
THE SYUD TAKES TWO DEGREES IN
HIS TURREEQUT.
For a few days there was nothing more to be done. The Rajah's child
was well, and her complexion was already changed from the grey,
livid colour which had before existed to a healthy ruddy tint, and she
slept without waking. Every day the old Dervish visited her; and the
child, now fearless, nestled in his lap. What if she were a Beydur!
The haunted rooms had been freed of evil spirits; and by way of
giving assurance to all, especially to the servants, the family went
and slept there without being disturbed. A packet of medicines was
made up for the Rajah by the old man and Zóra, and the use of
them explained. Finally, the day arrived on which they must depart.
The oorus or anniversary, of the Saint Syud Sofy Surmust would take
place on the third day; and among the crowds present, it would be
difficult to find lodgings. Finally, the Rajah proposed that his
secretary should attend the old man, and see him safely through the
festival. "And," added that worthy person, "if your friend the Kazee
of Kembavee is there, so much the better." Then the presents to the
old Syud were brought from the treasury; and the seals, as they had
been made on them, were inspected by the Rajah and broken, and
the list that had been placed inside read out. It was, indeed, a
princely gift, suited to the age and holy profession of the recipient;
and with a bag of five hundred rupees the list closed.
"Nay, but I protest against this," said the old man, earnestly. "I
exercise my art not for gain; but for the love of God and His name."
"Well," replied the Rajah, "if thou wilt, give it away in charity. A gift
cannot be recalled; and so I pray thee take it for the remembrance

of one who, though he is only a Beydur, can at least prove grateful."
And after this no more objection was made; it would have been an
insult. Then, as the Syud rose, the Rajah rose also, and went and
touched the dear old man's feet; and the Ranees were called and did
the same; and the child, with many tears, hung about his neck, and
her hands wandered over his face; and it was with difficulty that he
and Zóra got away, under the blessings showered upon them. But all
was finished, and the secretary's wife had obtained the dearest wish
of her life, and drank a charm, which was washed from the paper on
which it had been written into a silver cup filled with water, in entire
faith in its efficacy. And now the Turreequt awaited them at Sugger,
and they must go. The money that had been given them was
converted into the small gold coin called hoons, which were then in
circulation, and could easily be carried; and Wednesday being the
proper day for proceeding northwards, according to the Rujub-ool-
Ghyb, and a fortunate conjunction of planets to boot, they took
leave of their hostess and departed. The day before, when they had
gone to pay their respects to the Rajah, he said he had provided two
palanquins for the old Dervish and Zóra; and though this interfered
with the vow to walk the whole distance, yet it had become evident
to Zóra that her grandfather's life would be endangered by fatigue;
and, after much remonstrance, she agreed to a compromise, that on
approaching Sugger or any other town he should alight from his
conveyance, spread a sheet on the ground before him, sing the
invocation, and await the alms of the passers by. So with Ahmed and
Mamoolla mounted on their ponies, the baggage animals loaded and
led behind, a guard sent by the Rajah, and the secretary mounted
on a palfrey of his own, the little procession passed out of the gate
of Wakin-Keyra amid the blessings and prayers of a crowd which had
assembled there.
The road to Sugger lay through some low rocky hills for a while,
and, passing through a natural gap in them, the valley and town of
Sugger came in sight, at the distance of a few miles; a pretty scene,
for the town seemed embosomed in trees; several considerable
tanks for irrigation lay blue and still in the hollow, and the bright

green rice-fields below them formed a pleasant and remarkable
feature in the landscape; while the newly-erected mausoleum of
Ankoos Khan, a late Minister of Beejapoor, rose in an imposing mass
above all. To the right were high, rocky hills, which seemed to
increase in height till they broke suddenly into the plain a few miles
to the east, and were composed of rocks like those so vividly
remembered by Zóra at Juldroog, piled on each other in huge
masses. On the north side of the valley was a still higher and more
massive range, which the secretary pointed out to her as he rode by
the side of her palanquin, and told her that the great fortress of
Shahpoor occupied a portion of it. All over the valley between the
two ranges the land was well cultivated, and the early crops were
now ripening, while others were still green. To Zóra, who had never
seen such a sight before, the whole valley appeared a perfect
paradise; and, indeed, under the glowing sunlight, it was no doubt
very beautiful.
A strange feature in the latter portion of their journey was the
number of touters who now met them, crying the praises of the
rooms they had to let; and these soon increased to a crowd. The
occurrence of the annual festival was a source of profit to all in the
town, and everyone who had even a vacant cowshed to offer,
cleaned it out and proclaimed it a palace. Lodgings had, however,
already been provided; and the Moolla of the great mosque hearing
from his friend, the Kazee of Kembavee, of the proposed visit of the
old Dervish and Zóra, had kindly offered such accommodation as his
house afforded. Now, as they approached the town the procession
halted, and the arrangement Zóra had proposed was carried out.
Near the great mausoleum of Ankoos Khan was a grassy bank
shaded by a large tree, and they sat down and sang the invocation,
while on the sheet spread out cowries and copper coins soon began
to rattle as they fell; and the result, as the old Dervish declared, as
he stroked his long beard, was evidence of the goodness of the
Almighty. "There will be many poor folks at the evening prayer,
child," he said to Zóra, "and thou art to distribute all there is to

them." Then, after a while, he rose, and led by Zóra, for he would
allow no one else to perform this office, he walked slowly on.
The Bazar, and indeed the whole of the town, was full of people; and
the sight of the venerable old man, led by his beautiful grandchild,
created no little excitement. "Who is the holy Dervish?" cried some.
"We welcome your holiness to our town in the name of His Highness
the Prophet and Sofy Surmust, on whom be peace!" cried a body of
Mussulman weavers, all with long beards as though they were
Dervishes. "That is the holy saint who cast out devils at Wakin-
Keyra," cried others; "may he live a hundred years! And that is his
grandchild, who leads him everywhere, bless her sweet face!" And it
was, indeed, sweet to look upon.
Zóra had had a green dress made for herself at Wakin-Keyra, and
this she wore that day. It was a tunic like that of a man, with loose
skirts. She wore a turban of green muslin, into which her beautiful
hair was gathered and bound up. Her loose trousers were also
green, and the scarf which was tied round her waist, crossed over
her head; so that, if needful, she could at any time conceal her face.
Women, as she passed them, held out their children to her, and,
stretching out their own hands, kissed the tips of their fingers, or
cracked their knuckles against their temples. "God defend thee from
evil glances, holy one," cried some. "Ah! she has taken the vows of a
Syudanee," said others, "and is not ashamed." Ashamed! no, indeed.
Zóra seemed triumphant. She, too, had her humble place in the
Turreequt, and, God willing, would go on with it, leading her beloved
grandfather to the last. No wonder she was admired, nay, almost
reverenced, as, with a firm, confident step, and a look of modest
reliance in her great brown eyes, she passed through the thronged
street. Even the soldiers who were lounging about respected her,
rose at her approach, and saluted her humbly. Thus they passed on
till they were near the mosque, where their friend the Kazee awaited
them, attended by their host the Moolla; and they were led into the
great court of the mosque, and then through a door into a private
enclosure, which was always kept, as the Moolla told them, for
visitors of distinction; and Zóra at once saw that there was ample

room and privacy for all. While behind was a yard which would
contain their ponies, Ahmed, and the men they had hired to
accompany them.
Presently the call to afternoon prayer was sung from the roof of the
mosque, and crowds began to assemble—Fakeers, weavers, soldiers,
and many strangers. The Kazee had requested the old Dervish to
give a discourse, such as might suit the people assembled, and he
had consented; and after prayer was ended, he recited a verse of
the Koran, and began his sermon on the Turreequt, or path of
salvation. Never had such a discourse been heard in that mosque. It
seemed as if, translated by his enthusiasm above the ordinary life
and occupations of men, as indeed by his blindness and reverential
spirit he had been for so many years, the Dervish was like one
inspired, and his eloquence, so pathetic, so practical, and so truly
fitting his subject, powerfully affected his audience, and many
groaned, many wept; and at the close of the address all his hearers
crowded round him to interchange the salutation of peace which is
exchanged among Mussulman worshippers.
Thenceforward the afternoon services at the mosque were attended
by crowds; and when she led her grandfather to his apartment, to
take rest, Zóra could not help exclaiming, in ardent tones of love and
admiration, "Oh, Abba! I never heard thee speak as thou hast done
to-day. May the Lord bless and sustain thee to make the people like
thyself." But he could not reply; his own heart appeared too full for
words. That evening, too, he performed his vow of begging, and
people said, "That is the Dervish who preached to-day, and his child;
they have a vow to beg." And so no one molested them as they
sang their invocations; and Zóra carried her wallet on her arm,
receiving alms from those who heard her sweet thrilling voice,
whether they were Mussulmans or Hindoos.
But it was necessary to choose which association of Fakeers the old
man should belong to. What had he to hope for in the world? What
had Zóra? Her religious enthusiasm had been aroused, and she, too,
would fain have made an open profession of her faith, but her

grandfather objected. "It is not in thy horoscope, child," he said, as
she urged him to consent with sobs and tears. "In that are children,
and the rank thou art entitled to. These cannot come through
profession as a Fakeer; and shall we, who have given ourselves up
to the guidance of the Lord, dare to misinterpret His will? Be patient,
then, my child, and fear not, for I believe that what will come to
thee will come out of thy faith and thy endurance." So she was
silent, and wept no more; but, instead, dwelt upon his form whom
she had once watched, and which seemed to rise to her mental
vision more vividly than ever.
It was, however, necessary to decide this serious question of
election. Our old Dervish, by his first and subsequent discourses,
had given proof of his fitness for any grade, even the highest one of
Musháekh, beyond which only remained that of Wallee, or saint,
and, in concert with his friends, a whole day was spent in
deliberation on the subject. At Sugger were assembled
representatives of all the hundreds of sects of Fakeers existing in the
country, of which we spare the reader the enumeration of, to him or
her, unpronounceable names. There were some who sung odes and
hymns, some who danced, some who played instruments; many
who led lewd, riotous lives, and pretended to do miracles; others
who walked through thorns and danced on hot embers, or took red-
hot chains or ploughshares in their hands, and, dipping them in
powdered resin, wiped off the blaze with naked hands. Some kept
bears, or tigers, or monkeys, which they had tamed and taught to
perform ingenious tricks; others had tame snakes living in their
sleeves or in the breasts of their tunics. Again, there were others
who seared their tongues with hot wires, or scored their arms or
breasts till the blood flowed, or put live scorpions into their mouths.
In short, if I, the writer of this chronicle, enumerated all the sects
and their particular professions and means of getting their livelihood,
my readers would see plainly, as the old Dervish did, that these were
but contrivances to get money, or to lead dissolute lives under the
pretence of a godly vow. "And what," he said, "could a quilted cap
and an iron rod like the Kullundurs, or black turbans and clothes like

the devotees of Shah Zinda Mudar, signify as aids to the Turreequt?"
He therefore said to his friends,—
"All these divisions of Fakeers are delusions, my brothers, and many
of them are delusions of Satan, and work for the ruin of souls. My
own faith is simple, and my course of life is also simple. Whatever I
have been able to do, either in the relief of the sick or the casting
out of evil spirits, I have effected under the invocation of the noble
Saint Peer-i-Dustugeer, the Prince Syud Abd-ool-Qadir, on whom be
peace! Should there be any professors of his doctrine or ceremonies
in this great assemblage, I pray ye, friends, bring him or them to
me, that I may make a public profession, and be received into the
sect as a Moorsheed (scholar, or novice). I shall henceforward be a
Fakeer, and fight for the faith under the banners of my chosen Lord."
The Moolla of the mosque, the secretary, and the Kazee, who had
each become devotees of other sects, would fain have had the old
man join that which they themselves had professed; but after much
earnest and learned discussion they could not succeed in weakening
their guest's resolution, and they let him have his way. A professor
of the Qadirea doctrines was soon found, who was a respectable and
learned man from Golconda, who had taken the degree already, and,
in conjunction with our old friend, a fitting day was soon named and
fixed. What a pleasure, too, it was to receive visits from the officers
of the troops stationed at Sugger, who were mostly Dekhanies! How
pleasant to hear the old surnames, which he had not heard for
years! For here were Bylmees, Alla-ool-Moolks, Siah-poshas—white
standards, black sunshades—and many others, whose familiar war
cries he had heard in the field. And the commander had the
Akhbars, or news-letters of Beejapoor, and left them for Zóra to read
to her grandfather.
How pleasant it was to hear of old names, and of the King's progress
against the armies of Ahmednugger; watching every movement of
the enemy, yet not striking a blow; but striving to bring them to
reason. Then in one of the latest, the arrival of Abbas Khan was
mentioned, and the accusation against him and the trial by ordeal,

and the praises of the young man and description of his noble
bearing before the Queen, a stripling as he appeared before a giant,
were, you may be sure, dear reader, read by Zóra with feelings of
exultation she could not repress. She even set to work and copied
the whole passage. Then also Meeah's appointment to command the
reinforcement for the King, and his march out of the city; and that
Runga Naik accompanied him. So he was well, Zóra thought, with
glistening eyes and beating heart, and has cleared himself before all,
even his Queen. I think her grandfather was too much bound up in
his Turreequt to care much about the Beejapoor news, though he
appeared to rejoice at Abbas Khan's victory; but in the Akhbar of the
next day, in which the discovery of Osman Beg's treason was
detailed, and read by Zóra with emotion, and that he would be tried
before the Queen, the old man suddenly burst out into an
unexpected display of feeling. Hitherto he had not complained of the
outrage to Zóra, except at first, but now he was passionately
excited. "Spare me, O Lord!" he cried, raising his hands to heaven.
"Spare me to help thy justice before men; then Thou wilt give me
tongue to speak his shame who purposed shame to my child—yea,
shame and insult. Ameen! Ameen!" and again he relapsed into
silence. "Thou dost not say Ameen, girl," he said at length.
"The Lord, who forgives our sins, can do as He wills, Abba, in this
matter, and forgive if it be good," replied Zóra, gravely. "Yet I can
say in truth Ameen and Ameen to whatever He willeth. Doubt not,
Abba, that truth will be declared, for so my heart tells me daily, and
that this our journey is the way to its attainment."
He was again silent for awhile, and then said, "And hast thou
forgiven him, Zóra?"
"I have forgiven him," she replied, humbly. "He can do me no harm;
and, under the protection of the Lord, he did me none. For what he
purposed to do, Alla will judge."
"And where didst thou learn this, child?"

"From your own lips, Abba," she said, humbly; and going to him,
bent down and kissed his hands and his feet. "From your own lips,
Abba. Dost thou think I forget thy teaching, when all who hear
remember it?"
"I am rebuked, Zóra, and justly so. If I do not what I bid others do,
of what use is this Turreequt? Let him be mentioned, no more
between us. No, he cannot harm thee now; and let the Lord deal
with him as He pleaseth;" and the old man lay down and fell asleep.
Everything had been arranged as to the initiation. The Musháekh
from Golconda, who was a learned and wealthy man, who lived in
an ancient saint's garden and shrine near that fort, and was much
respected by the King, had been one of the audience when the first
of the Dervish's sermons was preached, and he had continued his
visits to the mosque every day, and after the last he was brought
into the old man's apartments, and introduced to him. He had
believed that the venerable preacher was already a Musháekh of
high degree, and was considerably surprised by his request to be
now allowed to enter the order, and fixed the second day afterwards
for the ceremony, giving a detail of what would be needful. And we
will not say what culinary preparations were made under old
Mamoolla and a staff of cooks, who were hired and put under her
orders; but there were sundry pilaos, birianees, kabobs, and other
savoury and delicate viands.
The cooking, which was for over a hundred Fakeers of all
denominations, had begun early in the morning, and before noon
the Musháekh arrived, accompanied by his friends, and took his seat
in the mosque. Then our old Dervish came forth, and many wild-
looking Fakeers, who had assembled, were led by the Kazee and the
secretary, and being presented to the holy man, they placed their
hands on his head and bade him welcome. Being asked whether his
choice of the Saint Peer-i-Dustugeer was a true one, the old man
produced a diploma he had received in Tunis, where he had become
a disciple, and which had been sealed with the seals of eminent
men. This the Musháekh put to his forehead and eyes, and kissed it;

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